Rhineland

The Rhineland is a historic region of western Germany, located along the Rhine River borders with the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. The Rhineland is home to several major German cities, including Muenster, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Duisburg, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Bonn, Wuppertal, Koblenz, Trier, Bitburg, and Kaiserslautern, and it has been an integral part of Germany due to its industrial capabilities and its status as a major population center. In 1946, West Germany divided the region into three states: North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Hesse.